Jean's Reviews > The Honeycomb

As a life-long reader, I have to be selective of what books I keep. I wish I had unlimited space to keep them all. I was looking at some books I have kept since the nineteen sixties for some information/facts I remembered were there. I found the correct book and started going through it to find the key information. But, I found myself ending up re-reading the book again after all these years. It held my attention just as it did in 1969. The book is “The Honeycomb” by Adela Rogers St. Johns (1894-1988). I was looking for a pearl of information she had written about Jack London (1876-1916). I had read her book “Final Verdict”, a biography about her father, Earl Rodgers (1869-1922). Both books have information about one of his most famous cases, the defense of Clarence Darrow on attempted jury bribery. Earl Rodgers was one of the most famous defense attorneys of his day. Adela worked with him when she was a young woman.

“The Honeycomb” is her memoir. Adela had gone from being her father’s assistant to a newspaper reporter at the San Francisco Examiner in 1912 for Hearst. Then she worked for the Los Angeles Herald starting in 1913. She made her name covering the famous trial of Brum Richard Hauptman who kidnapped the son of Charles Lindbergh. She also covered the assassination of Senator Huey Long as well as many other famous new stories. From journalism she moved into writing screenplays and teleplays where she had a long and successful career. She then wrote many novels and biographies. Because of her famous father, she grew up around many highly successful and famous people such as Jack London. She says this had a great influence on her drive to succeed in her chosen career of writing.

“The Honeycomb” is well written and reads like a who’s who of California in the 1900s to the 1960s. I will keep this book on my bookshelf as it is a treasure trove of famous and also little-known facts. I am glad I re-read this book and refreshed my knowledge about this most interesting woman.

The book is 700 pages and was published in 1969 by Doubleday.